Semiconductor device having interconnected contact groups

ABSTRACT

The present invention is related to a method of producing a semiconductor device and the resulting device. The method is suitable in the first place for producing high power devices, such as High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT), in particular HEMT-devices with multiples source-gate-drain groups or multiple base bipolar transistors. According to the method, the interconnect between the source contacts is not produced by air bridge structures, but by etching vias through the semiconductor layer directly to the ohmic contacts and applying a contact layer on the backside of the device.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/343,243, filed Jan. 30, 2006, for “METHOD FOR PRODUCING ASEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND RESULTING DEVICE,” issued as U.S. Pat. No.7,______, on ______; which application claims the benefit under 35U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Patent Application No. 60/648,841, filed Jan.31, 2005, for “INTEGRATION OF POWER HEMT'S”, and claims the benefitunder 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) of European Patent Application No. EP 05447156,filed on Jun. 30, 2005, all of which are hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to semiconductor devices comprisingmultiple source-gate-drain combinations, in particular devices that aredesigned to work at high frequency and high power levels, such asmultiple gate-finger High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs), i.e.having at least two gate contacts on the same substrate.

2. Description of the Related Art

High frequency and power devices are generally confronted by a problemof thermal management. In HEMT-devices, heat is generated in a verysmall area, especially in the channel, close to the gate area. This heatneeds to be removed in an effective way.

An established way to produce multiple gate-finger HEMTs is to grow asemiconductor stack (e.g. a GaN/AlGaN stack) on a first substrate, forinstance a sapphire substrate, provide ohmic contacts, gate metal andcontact metal and a passivation layer, and apply a structure on top ofthe device, called an ‘airbridge’, to connect the neighbouring contacts,with similar function.

Flip chip bumps are then applied around the HEMT or on a secondsubstrate. The first substrate is then diced to form individual deviceswhich are subsequently attached to the second substrate by flip-chiptechnology. The air bridges collect the heat generated in the HEMT andremove it laterally. The heat is further removed in vertical directionby the flip-chip bumps. This however results in a device with aconsiderable height.

In US2003/0040145A1, a method is described for transferring and stackingsemiconductor devices. The method allows to produce a single-gate HEMTdevice by forming it on a first substrate, singulating the firstsubstrate into separate devices, and attaching the individual devices toa second substrate, via a bonding layer. It is not a self-evident stepto apply a similar method to multiple gate-finger HEMTs, given that theinterconnect between neighbouring contacts would need to be provided ina different way, compared to the air-bridge structures.

US2001/0005043 is related to a semiconductor device and a method ofmanufacturing the same, wherein a plurality of bipolar transistors areproduced on a substrate. The substrate is flipped onto a secondarysubstrate, and the active areas of the devices are connected through ametal layer applied to the backside of the device, after creation of viaholes. The transistors are subsequently diced, to form individualsingle-gate devices, eg. HEMTs. Given that there is no need in thisdisclosure for interconnecting corresponding area's (e.g. bases) of thedifferent transistors, to produce a single (e.g. multiple base) device,the problem of avoiding airbridges is not addressed in this document.

Document U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,639 describes a multi-finger HEMT, whereinthe source, gate and drain areas are contacted from the backside of thedevice, by producing through holes to lateral areas which are connectedto the multiples sources, drains and gates of the device. However, thistechnique requires at least one air-bridge to be made. This is shown inFIG. 1 a of U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,639, by the dotted lines on the area 14,representing the gate contact area. At these dotted lines, the gate areais crossed by the area's 12. On these locations, air bridges arenecessary to separate the contact areas 12 and 14.

Document US2005/0127397 describes a GaN device with heat spreading layerand a thermal via. However, the problem of avoiding airbridges is notaddressed here. The heat sinks are moreover not used to interconnectdifferent regions of the device.

One embodiment provides a method for producing semiconductor devices, inparticular high frequency and high power devices such as multiplegate-finger HEMTs, which are more compact than the air-bridge structuresknown in the art, and which are still within the required specificationsin terms of heat dissipation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is related to a method as described in the appendedclaims, and to devices produced by applying this method. As expressed inclaim 1, the invention is related to a method for producing asemiconductor device comprising a plurality (i.e. at least two) groupsof gate/drain/source contacts, or equivalently, base/collector/emittercontacts, wherein the respective types of contact of said groups areinterconnected to a common gate, drain and source (or base, collector,emitter) output contact. The preferred embodiments are a multiplegate-finger HEMT, and a multiple base bipolar transistor. In all of thefollowing description, and for the sake of conciseness of the text, thewords ‘gate,source,drain’ contacts will be used. It is however to benoted that these words can be replaced everywhere by‘base,emitter,collector’ respectively.

The basic characteristic of the invention is expressed in appended claim1. A first substrate is provided, comprising on its front side asemiconductor stack, i.e. a semiconductor layer, and on top of thatlayer a plurality of gate contacts, each gate contact lying in betweensource and drain ohmic contacts, for producing a plurality ofsource-gate-drain structures. Possibly but not necessarily afterflipping the first substrate onto a second substrate, the device is thencontacted from the backside (the side opposite the one carrying thegate/source/drains), by etching via's through the semiconductor layerand through the first substrate itself, in case the first substrate isnot removed or in case it is partly removed by a thinning step.According to another embodiment, the first substrate is completelyremoved after flipping the device onto a second substrate, and vias areetched in the semiconductor layer.

In all embodiments, the vias are etched in a particular way with respectto the above mentioned ohmic contacts. The term ‘ohmic contacts’ refersto the contact regions which form a direct ohmic contact with the activearea's defined as source and drain on the semiconductor layer.

According to the invention, vias are produced directly on top of eachohmic contact of at least one type, e.g. on top of all the sourcecontacts, to thereby expose said ohmic contact, so that it may becontacted by a subsequently applied interconnect layer. At least onetype of ohmic contact (e.g. all the source ohmic contacts) is contacteddirectly in this way. The other type of ohmic contacts may be contactedin another way, e.g. by providing vias to lateral contact areas (i.e.via's which are not directly on top of the actual ohmic contacts).Alternatively, two types of ohmic contact (preferably sources anddrains), may all be contacted directly through via holes produceddirectly on top of these types of contact.

By providing via's directly on top of at least one type of contact, andby thus contacting directly the ohmic contacts of that type, it is notnecessary to apply an airbridge in order to accomplish the necessaryinterconnections. This will be explained in more detail with referenceto the drawings.

According to a first embodiment, the method of the invention comprisesthe following basic steps

-   -   providing a first substrate, comprising on its front side a        semiconductor stack, i.e. a semiconductor layer, and on top of        that layer a plurality of gate contacts, each gate contact lying        in between source and drain contacts (ohmic contacts), for        producing a plurality of source-gate-drain structures,    -   providing a second substrate provided with an adhesive layer,    -   attaching the first substrate to the second substrate, by        attaching the front side of that substrate to the adhesive layer        on the second substrate. If no additional layers are deposited        over the gate contacts, this means that the gate contacts are        brought in direct contact with the adhesive layer.    -   removing the first substrate from the semiconductor layer, after        the step of attaching the first substrate, to expose the        backside of the semiconductor layer,    -   etching vias through the semiconductor layer, in the way        described above,    -   producing on the semiconductor layer an interconnecting contact        layer to provide an interconnect between said source-gate-drain        structures. This results in an operational device on the second        substrate.        The last two steps constitute a backside contacting step of the        final device, which is the main distinguishing feature compared        to the prior art, where the interconnect between the        source/gate/drain structures (for multi-gate devices) is        established by air-bridge structures. Preferably, a contact        metal layer is produced onto said contacts, prior to attaching        the first substrate to the second.

The method of the invention is applicable to a multiple gate-finger (inshort: multi-finger) HEMT device, which is the preferred embodimentdescribed in detail hereafter. However, the invention is applicable toany plurality of source-gate-drain structures, whether they are adjacentin one area of the substrate, or located in different areas of thesubstrate.

The first substrate may be a sapphire, silicon or a glass substrate. Itmay also be a GaAs, Ge, InP, SiC or AlN substrate. The second substrateis preferably a low cost substrate. It may be a glass, silicon orpolymer based substrate. According to a further embodiment, the secondsubstrate may be a multi-chip-module dielectric stack (MCM-D). The MCM-Dstack may comprise passive components such as resistors or capacitors.The removal of the first substrate can be performed by wet etching, dryetching, laser ablation or laser lift-off (or a combination of thesetechniques).

The semiconductor layer may be made of a Group III nitride material. Agroup III nitride material is a material comprising a nitride of anelement of Group III of the periodic table of elements. Group IIInitride materials are known to a person skilled in the art as wide bandgap materials. A group III nitride material can be GaN, whereby GaN isto be understood as a material comprising at least GaN, such as, but notlimited hereto, AlGaN, InGaN, AlInGaN, GaAsPN and the like. Thesemiconductor layer can also comprise a stack of layers, wherein atleast one of the layer comprising a group III nitride material. Thedevice as recited in this invention can also comprise a diamond layerinstead of a Group-III nitride material.

In another preferred embodiment, the source contact and drain contactare made of an alloy comprising Ti, Al, Ni, Mo, Ta, Pt, Pd, Si, V, Nb,Zr and/or Au. The contact being preferably formed by Ti/Al/Ti/Ausequence, Ti/Al/Ni/Au, Ti/Al/Mo/Au or Ti/Al/Pt/Au.

The adhesive layer is preferably produced from a thermally conductiveadhesive, for the purpose of obtaining sufficient heat dissipation inthe final device. The adhesive can be selected from the group consistingof organic polymers, SU-8, poly-imide, BCB, silicones, flowable oxides,thermally conductive epoxy, e.g. epoxies with fillers (suspendedparticles to enhance thermal conductivity). The thickness of thethermally conductive adhesive layer is preferably between 500 nm and 10μm, even more preferably between 500 nm and 1 μm.

According to a preferred embodiment, a layer with the combined functionof passivation and heat spreading, may be deposited on thegate/source/drain contacts on the first substrate, prior to attachingthe first substrate to the second.

This passivation and heat spreading layer has two functions:

-   -   to protect gates and exposed semiconductor surface and to        improve the electrical properties of said surface,    -   to spread the heat in order to minimize the thermal resistance        of the adhesive layer

This passivation and heat spreading layer is a layer with a high thermalconductivity (higher than 150 W/mK). During the attaching step, it isthen the heat spreading layer which is attached to the thermallyconductive adhesive layer. In this case, the thermally conductiveadhesive layer can be the same as in the previous embodiment. However,since the thermal conductivity of the heat spreading layer is preferablybetter than typical adhesive layers (<10 W/mK), the application of aheat spreading layer further improves the thermal performance. Thepassivation and heat spreading layer may be formed of AlN, AlSiC, highlyresistive Si, SiC or Si-nitride or diamond. Advantageously, acombination of two subsequent layers, a first layer as a passivationlayer and a second as a heat spreading layer, can be used to have anoptimal performance.

After via-etching and before backside contacting, a second passivationlayer may be applied onto the semiconductor layer.

An advantage of the present invention is that the active side of thesemiconductor device is protected and remains essentially unaffected. Afurther advantage is that the resulting structure is more compact,compared to devices produced by applying air bridge structures. Thedevice produced according to the present invention is highly integrated,has short interconnects and a planar character, allowing further 3Dintegration.

In a second embodiment, the method comprises a number of further steps,following the steps of the first embodiment. After the connectionbetween the source/gate/drain structures has been established, thesecond substrate, which is now carrying the finished interconnecteddevice, may be reversed and attached to a third substrate, by attachingthe side of the second substrate, carrying the interconnect layer, tothe third substrate, preferably an MCM substrate. The second substrateand the original adhesive layer are then removed, and vias can be etchedand heat sinks applied which allow for a better heat dissipation. Thiswill be described in more detail for a multi-finger HEMT device.

According to a third embodiment, the first substrate is not attached toa second substrate. The via's are produced through the backside of thefirst substrate, to expose e.g. the source areas. Possibly, thesubstrate may be subjected to a thinning operation prior to the viaetching. After formation of the via's (in the way described in claim 1),and application of the contacting layer, the first substrate may then beattached to a second substrate (equivalent to the third substrate fromthe previous embodiment).

To summarize, the advantages of the present invention are:

-   -   Additional thermal conduction paths to the active device are        created:

this means that the heat can be removed both vertically (towards the 2ndsubstrate, e.g. MCM) and laterally (by means of the metal contacts). Thevertical distance between device and substrate is small, which limitsthe thermal resistance of this conduction path.

-   -   Airbridges on the semiconductor substrate are avoided,    -   The electrical connections to the HEMT are very short; this        means that there are less parasitics and as a result an improved        RF-behaviour,    -   The final structure is very planar; this may facilitate further        packaging and system integration.

Moreover, the advantages associated with MCM remain valid:

-   -   MCM is better suited for greater metal thickness (improving the        thermal conductivity)    -   The devices can be tested before the MCM integration    -   MCM adds functionality to the device through passives or        integration of several active components possibly obtained from        different technologies.    -   Lower substrate cost compared to MMIC.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the method steps according to a first embodiment ofthe invention, to produce a multi-finger HEMT.

FIG. 2 illustrates the steps of the method according to a secondembodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a top view of a HEMT device, illustrating the shape of thecontact areas in a preferred embodiment of the device.

FIGS. 4 a and 4 b show alternative designs for a 6 gate HEMT accordingto the invention.

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b show more alternative designs for a 6-gate HEMTaccording to the invention.

FIGS. 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d further illustrate one embodiment theinvention.

FIGS. 7 a, 7 b, 7 c, and 7 d further illustrate one embodiment theinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The preferred embodiment of the present invention concerns theproduction of a multi-finger HEMT device according to the method ascharacterised above. In FIG. 1, the different process steps of producinga HEMT according to the first embodiment of the invention, areillustrated. The steps will be further highlighted hereafter.

FIG. 1 a: providing a sapphire substrate 1, with a semiconductor stackon top of it. The stack consists of a GaN layer 2 and an AlGaN layer 3.The GaN film is between 1 and 5 μm thick and grown on the sapphiresubstrate in a MOCVD system (Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition).The top layer 3 of AlGaN (15-30 nm) film is grown on top such that ahigh concentration of electrons occurs at the interface (two dimensionalelectron gas, 2-DEG).

FIG. 1 b: a mesa etch is done to isolate individual devices on thesubstrate. The etch has to go through the 2-DEG interface 4.

FIG. 1 c: A metal stack 5 is deposited for the drain and sourcecontacts. The source and drain contacts are deposited together. Atypical stack is Ti/Al/x/Au (x=Mo, Pt, Ti, . . . ), with thicknessrespectively: 20/40/25/50 nm. The thickness of the layers is optimiseddepending on the GaN/AlGaN layer. An annealing at high temperature isperformed to promote alloy formation that makes the contacts ohmic innature (at 800-1000° C.).

FIG. 1 d: The gate contacts 6 are produced with a an e-beam process; thematerial used for the gates may be Ni/Au or Pt/Au (20/200 nm).

FIG. 1 e: optionally, a contact metal layer 7 is applied (e.gTiW/Au/TiW).

FIG. 1 f: a passivation layer is deposited over the device (100 nmSi3N4, not visible on figure) and a heat spreading layer 8 is depositedover the passivation layer (e.g. 0.5-1 μm AlN). After this step, thesubstrate 1 is preferably diced to form individual devices.

FIG. 1 g: a second substrate 9 is provided, with a thermally conductiveadhesive layer 10 on said second substrate. There may be passivecomponents present on the second substrate. The HEMT device and firstsubstrate are reversed and bonded to the adhesive layer, so that theheat spreading layer 8 is in direct contact with the adhesive layer 10.The adhesive used may be BCB or SU-8.

FIG. 1 h: the first substrate is removed, possibly using laser lift-off:laser pulses are applied to the sapphire substrate, the pulses having anenergy higher than the GaN bandgap. The pulses are absorbed at theGaN/sapphire interface, which leads to a local decomposition into Ga andN2. Ga has a very low melting point: this means that the substrate canbe removed at low temperature. The remaining Ga can be removed by ashort HCl-dip.

FIG. 1 n: Around the HEMT device, the adhesive layer is removed using aSF6/O2 etch. Vias 11 are made in the GaN/AlGaN active layer usingCl2-etching.

In the drawing in FIG. 1 i, the vias are etched to expose the source,drain and gate contacts to the environment (i.e. uncover these contacts)so that these source contacts may be directly contacted in the nextprocess step.

The section of FIG. 1 i shows vias only to the source contacts. However,the gates and drains need to be contacted as well: FIG. 3 shows a topview of the HEMT device of FIG. 1, including the mesa 40 and thelocation where the vias 11 are produced. The source contact areas 29 arecontacted directly, while the drain and gate areas are produced in sucha way that they are interconnected to lateral contact areas 30 and 31,each contacted through one via 52. It is to be noted that it is not alimitation of the invention that the source contacts are to be contacteddirectly (i.e. as shown in FIG. 3). This may equally be the case for thegate or drain contacts, in which case the remaining two contacts may becontacted through lateral areas in the plane of the device. Stillalternatively, all contact areas may be contacted directly, i.e. withoutthe lateral contact areas.

FIG. 1 j: optionally, a passivation layer 12 is deposited onto thebackside, e.g. Si-nitride. This layer passivates the GaN backside andmay influence the electronic properties of the HEMT.

FIG. 1 k: a contact layer 13 to the gate/source/drain contacts isdeposited, e.g. using Cu-electroplating.

These steps result in a multi-finger HEMT device, produced according tothe first embodiment.

As stated above, the invention is characterized by the fact that vias 11are produced to directly contact at least one of the types of ohmiccontact of the device. FIGS. 4 a and 4 b show a number of alternativesin case of a 6-gate HEMT. The contours are shown of what is defined asthe ‘ohmic contacts’ of the sources (29) and drains (50). The gatecontacts 51 are visible as well. In FIG. 4 a, vias 11 are etcheddirectly on top of the source contacts 29, to expose these contacts, sothat they may be interconnected by the interconnect layer 13 (FIG. 1).Directly on top of the drain and gate contacts, no vias are produced. Instead, these contacts are contacted via lateral areas 30 and 31 (alsocalled contact pads), wherein one via 52 is produced respectively. Inthe device of FIG. 4 a, contact pads 53 are also shown which are inconnection with the outer two source area's. Additional vias 54 may beproduced on these outer contact pads. However, the latter is not arequirement of the present invention.

In the embodiment in FIG. 4 b, vias 11 are produced to directly contactall the source and drain areas 29 and 50. The contact pad 30 for thedrains is still present, but could be omitted in this embodiment.Alternatively, vias 11 may be produced to directly contact all types ofcontact (sources, drains and gates). In this case, it would be necessaryto produce gates with a broader width.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, it is clear that theinterconnecting layer 13, properly patterned, is able to interconnectthe source regions 29 with each other, as well as the drain and gateregions 50,51 respectively, without the necessity of interconnecting onetype of contact (e.g. all the drains) by an airbridge. An airbridgewould be the necessary if all of the ohmic contact types would becontacted through a lateral contact pad, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,639.This illustrates the improvement accomplished by the invention over theavailable art.

According to the second embodiment, a number of additional steps areperformed, as illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 a: The same steps as described above are applied to obtain thegate source and drain contact zones 5 and 6 on the substrate 1. Apassivation layer 20 is deposited on the contacts 5 and 6, with an etchstop 21 layer on top of the passivation layer.

FIG. 2 b: the substrate 1 is reversed and bonded to the second substrate9, after which the first substrate 1 is removed, in the same way as inthe first embodiment. The bonding layer 10 according to this embodimentis not necessarily a thermally conductive adhesive layer. It may beSU8/BCB or metal.

FIG. 2 c: vias 11 are etched to the contact areas. In principle, vias toonly the source contacts would be enough in this case, but thedisadvantage here then is that the devices cannot be measured beforebonding to the third substrate. In the preferred case of thisembodiment, therefore, vias are produced to all contact areas (source,drain, gate), as in FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 d: the interconnect is established by the backside contact layer13. The device shown in FIG. 2 d therefore corresponds to the finisheddevice from the first embodiment, shown in FIG. 1 k, except that in thefirst embodiment there is a thermal and electrical lateral contactbetween the backside contact layer 13 and the second substrate 9. Thiscontact is not present in the second embodiment, since the secondsubstrate will be removed anyway (see further).

FIG. 2 e: according to the second embodiment, a third substrate 22 a, 22b is now provided, preferably an MCM-substrate (e.g. an AlN-substrate)with a good thermal conductivity. The bottom layer 22 a is the substrateand the layer 22 b on top is a patterned metal layer to make contact tothe sources. The third substrate is provided with a bonding layer 23.The second substrate is now reversed and attached to the third substrateby attaching the side carrying the interconnect layer 13, to the thirdsubstrate, by means of the bonding layer 23. The bonding layer 23 ispreferably a layer with good thermal conductivity. It may be a metalbonding layer.

FIG. 2 f: The second substrate 9 and adhesive layer 10 are subsequentlyremoved. This may be done by an etching step, stopped by the etch stoplayer 21. Other ways of removing the second substrate 9 may however beapplied, which would not require an etch stop layer.

FIG. 2 g: the etch stop layer is removed and vias may be etched in thepassivation layer 20 on top of the gate/source/drain contacts (5,6), andheat sinks 24 may be deposited on top of the contacts.

Preferably according to the second embodiment, the first substrate 1 isnot diced before reversing and attaching it to the second substrate. Instead, the first substrate is reversed and attached as a whole, possiblyattaching several HEMT-devices to the second substrate. The dicing ispreferably done after reversing and attaching the first substrate to thesecond. As shown in FIG. 2 e, individual devices are then reversed andattached to the third substrate.

The second embodiment of the method of the invention provides someadditional advantages over the prior art. Heat removal can be obtainedboth on the front and the backside of the device. At the back side, theheat can be removed to the third substrate 22 through the adhesive layer23 and interconnect layer 13, while at the front side, heat sinks can beproduced, for further improving the efficiency of the heat removal. Withthe device produced according to the second embodiment, it is alsopossible to test the complete device (with source contacts) before theintegration of the HEMT in a circuit on the third substrate.

In the second embodiment, it is possible to produce the vias to theohmic regions in the way shown in FIGS. 5 a and 5 b, i.e. withoutproducing vias 52 to the lateral contact pads 30 and 31. This is becausethese areas can be contacted in a known way, and without using airbridges, after the device has been attached to the third substrate.

According to a third embodiment, the first substrate is not flipped ontoa second substrate, but the vias are etched through the backside of thefirst substrate itself, see FIG. 6. This is possible only with a firstsubstrate 1 made of particular materials, preferably a Si. On top of theSi, there is also a further semiconductor layer (2,3), e.g. GaN/AlGaN,as in the previous embodiments. The layer 2+3 is shown as one layer inFIG. 6, but this is preferably a double layer as in FIG. 1. As seen inFIG. 6 a, the device, including all the gate/drain/source contacts 7 andthe passivation layer 8 is produced on the first substrate, in the sameway as described above for embodiment 1. Vias 60 are etched through thepassivation layer 8, to contact the lateral contact pads, see FIG. 6 b.

In this embodiment, the vias 11 are produced through the Si-substrate 1and the semiconductor layer 2,3 (see FIG. 6 c). Possibly, the substratemay be thinned at the backside, before producing the vias. This is thecase in the embodiment shown: the thickness of the substrate 1 has beenreduced in between the views B and C. The thinning may be performed byetching back the substrate, or by grinding and/or polishing thesubstrate from the backside.

The interconnect layer 13 is applied onto the backside of the substrate,leading to a finished device, see FIG. 6.

As mentioned above, the interconnect layer 13 is to be patterned in aproper way, to allow the ohmic contacts to be interconnected correctly.FIG. 7 shows some examples of how this patterning may be done, in thecase of the 6-gate HEMT shown in FIG. 4.

FIGS. 7 a and 7 b show two possibilities which can be used in a deviceaccording to embodiment 1. The interconnect layer 13 shows threedistinct regions, and thus allows a common contact to the gates, drainsand sources respectively.

FIGS. 7 c and 7 d show one or two distinct regions on the interconnectlayer 13. This design is only usable in embodiment 2, as it requires oneor two additional contact layers to be applied to the front of thedevice, after the device has been attached to the third substrate (FIG.2).

1. A semiconductor device, comprising: a semiconductor layer; aplurality of groups of contacts formed on a first side of thesemiconductor layer, each group comprising at least three types ofcontacts, wherein the at least three types of contacts comprise a sourcecontact, a drain contact, and a gate contact, or the at least threetypes of contacts comprise an emitter contact, a base contact, and acollector contact; and an interconnecting layer formed on a second sideof the semiconductor layer, the interconnecting layer being configuredto provide an interconnect between said groups of contacts, wherein eachgroup comprises at least one gate contact formed between source anddrain ohmic contacts, or each group comprises at least one base contactformed between emitter and collector ohmic contacts, and wherein thesemiconductor layer is configured to define a plurality of viasconnecting the first side with the second side, said vias being alignedat least with each of at least one type of ohmic contact in saidplurality of groups.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein respective typesof contact in each group are interconnected to a common gate, drain, andsource output contact, or a common base, collector, and emitter outputcontact.
 3. The device of claim 1, further comprising a passivationlayer applied between the semiconductor layer and the interconnectinglayer.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein vias are aligned with all theohmic contacts of one type, and wherein vias are also aligned withlateral areas to connect to contacts of all other types.
 5. The deviceof claim 1, wherein vias are aligned with all the source or emittercontacts, and wherein vias are also aligned with all the drain orcollector contacts.
 6. The device of claim 1, further comprising asubstrate attached to the first side of the semiconductor layer on topof said gate, source, and drain contacts or base, emitter, and collectorcontacts.
 7. The device of claim 6, further comprising an adhesive layerdisposed between the substrate and the semiconductor layer, saidadhesive layer comprising a thermally conductive material selected fromthe group consisting of organic polymers, thermally conductive epoxy,SU-8, poly-imide, BCB, silicones, and flowable oxides.
 8. The device ofclaim 7, wherein the thermally conductive epoxy is an epoxy withfillers.
 9. The device of claim 6, further comprising a contact metallayer formed on said gate, source, and drain contacts, or formed on saidbase, emitter, and collector contacts.
 10. The device of claim 9,further comprising a passivation and heat spreading layer formed on saidmetal contact layer.
 11. The device of claim 10, wherein saidpassivation and heat spreading layer comprises AlN, AlSiC, highlyresistive Si, SiC or Si-nitride.
 12. The device of claim 6, wherein saidsemiconductor device is a multiple gate-finger HEMT.
 13. The device ofclaim 6, wherein said semiconductor device is a multiple base bipolartransistor.
 14. The device of claim 6, wherein said substrate is dicedto form individual devices.
 15. The device of claim 1, furthercomprising a patterned metal layer attached to said interconnectinglayer, said patterned metal layer configured to provide connection to atleast certain ones of the contacts.
 16. The device of claim 15, furthercomprising a substrate bonded to said interconnecting layer over saidpatterned metal layer.
 17. The device of claim 15, further comprisingheat sinks formed on top of said source, gate and drain contacts, or ontop of said emitter, base, and collector contacts.
 18. The device ofclaim 15, wherein said vias are aligned with only one type of contact.19. The device of claim 1, wherein said semiconductor layer comprises astack of a GaN layer and an AlGaN layer.
 20. The device of claim 1,wherein said semiconductor layer comprises a stack of layers of which atleast one layer comprises a group III nitride material.